SuccessFactors announces Jam freemium version for customers

SAP firm SuccessFactors has announced a freemium model of its social collaboration tool Jam is available to its customers from today. 

The social business platform allows users to create and share rich media across an organisation either in private or public groups. The platform also automatically enrols new hires, fills out profiles, suggests relevant groups and connects users through their profile data, the only social business platform to do so according to the firm.

Additionally, with Jam for BizX Mobile users can publish comments and capture and share videos on the go through various mobile devices. 

Customers that desire a more advanced feature set can upgrade to Jam Premier, which includes unlimited storage and groups, connectors to other systems, and automated group management.

Dmitri Krakovsky, SuccessFactors VP of global product management, said: “Experts are everywhere at work. But when an employee needs help, finding the right person or content can be a real challenge, even in highly-organised companies.

“At SuccessFactors, we live in a highly competitive, dynamic business environment. Innovating fast was a business need – so we created a tool to collaborate in real time, identifying experts, answering questions and learning from one another. We're excited to extend our own internal social web experience by making Jam available to all of our customers. It can have an impact on their people and their business results.”

The move is clearly a counter against Salesforce.com's recent integration of Rypple with Chatter, which like Jam offers a free model alongside an advanced option. 

When asked if the company is planning to extend the freemium model to non-SuccessFactors customers, Krakovsky told MyCustomer.com: "Yes, for sure. We're always thinking about making it a very broad tool." 

No specific date for this was given for this, but the strategy indicates that SAP is not shrinking away from competing at the social networking level, reckons Angela Eager of research house TechMarketView. 

“It is a defensive move in that it is a direct attempt to keep SAP and SuccessFactors users from straying, but also has an offensive element as part of the wider goal of capturing the social front office. There is a lot a stake. Having effectively lost on the high volume SaaS CRM front to Salesforce.com and other SaaS CRM providers, SAP is anxious not to avoid a repeat in the HCM space, which is a lot closer to its core.

“SAP does not just have to fend off competing providers of business-oriented SaaS applications (and lets not forget the emerging Oracle/Taleo combo and Oracle’s broader SaaS ambitions – it also has to contend with other social platform providers such as Yammer and Socialcast and Jive.”